McLaren's SUV will be electric, radical and controversial as brand enters new era

McLaren Automotive is at a crossroads – under new ownership and leadership, and on the brink of a radical push into electric SUVs as its range is overhauled.

Abu Dhabi investment fund CYVN Holdings acquired the supercar business and a non-controlling stake in McLaren’s Formula One race team in April. CYVN immediately merged McLaren with its other automotive assets: a 700-employee British engineering start-up then operating under the name Forseven, the technology division of Gordon Murray Automotive and a technology licence deal with Chinese electric car maker Nio.

This new British luxury car group – McLaren Group Holdings – has vowed to transform McLaren Automotive under Nick Collins, Jaguar Land Rover’s former R&D boss. 

“We’ll do what McLaren has always done, but do more of it and do it even better,” the new CEO told Auto Express in an exclusive interview.

The McLaren W1 hybrid hypercar is on course for launch in 2026, followed by a push into electric SUVs potentially as soon as 2027.

McLaren was known to be exploring the SUV market under Collins’ predecessor Michael Leiters, who left rapidly after the CYVN acquisition. Leiters – who rose to prominence engineering Porsche’s initial SUVs and led Ferrari’s hybrid drivetrain development – believed that a four-door McLaren should be a rival for the Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin DBX.

His vision was for a swooping, sporty bodystyle, probably powered by a detuned version of the W1’s 1,234bhp drivetrain, which blends a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a high-output electric motor. McLaren had held talks with global automotive players for a vehicle architecture, to underpin a coupe-SUV priced above the £200,000+ Aston. That would limit volume to four figures, in keeping with McLaren’s low-volume, ultra-aspirational brand positioning. 

The existing SUVs being targeted by McLaren are available now through the Auto Express Buy A Car service. Used Aston Martin DBX models start under £100,000 while three-year old Range Rover Sport SVRs now start around the £50,000 mark.    

Bold new SUV plans for McLaren

McLaren’s new plan could be even more radical. Forseven’s engineering team, many ex-JLR like Nick Collins and new McLaren design boss Alister Whelan, had already drawn up a luxurious SUV – very much in keeping with the stately, horizontal lines and proportions of the Range Rover. And with plans for Forseven to launch its own brand now shelved, this blueprint is being assessed for launch as a McLaren. 

Its look is very different from Leiters’ vision, as is the proposed pure-electric drivetrain – a transition that has troubled supercar makers. Lamborghini has pushed back the launch of its electric coupe-SUV, based on the Lanzador concept, to 2029 at the earliest and Ferrari is reported to have shelved a second EV. McLaren’s previous leadership did not believe a critical mass of its customers were hungry for an electric SUV either.

Flexibility for electric and hybrid power

This is the minefield that the astute Nick Collins and his team must navigate. As the architect of the latest-generation Range Rover, Collins rightly set up the luxurious and lucrative off-roader for combustion, plug-in hybrid and pure electric propulsion. He told us that McLaren would be equally flexible.  

“I believe every brand must have a multi-propulsion future,” stresses the CEO. “The pace of regulatory change and consumer adoption is different in different parts of the world. Are we going to make McLaren an all-electric brand? Absolutely not.”

Collins refused to confirm whether Nio’s battery and motor technology would be used to power a McLaren EV. CYVN owns 20 per cent of the Chinese car maker and is assisting as the company tries to broaden its European footprint. “We have access to certain Nio technologies with our licence. And that's an amazing opportunity, because, frankly, some of the best automotive technology in the world is in China,” he claims.  

Leiters always believed it would take a leap in battery tech, with a stepchange improvement in energy density to boost long-running and agility, to unlock an electric supercar. A zero-emissions McLaren SUV – with less stringent performance requirements – could potentially have been enabled by a tech deal with BMW, for its iX or Neue Klasse architecture. Technology partnerships were discussed during ownership talks, but BMW didn’t follow through.

New ownership, new direction

CYVN did, with Nick Collins at the heart of the deal. “This transaction with McLaren was my initial suggestion,” he explained. He joined Forseven in January 2024 and “very shortly after, I was starting to suggest we look [at the acquisition]. So everything Forseven was doing from the middle of last year onwards, was with a target picture of where we got to [in] April.”

At a stroke, McLaren Automotive – which veered from one funding crisis to the next in the later years of its Bahraini ownership, ultimately losing around £900-million in 2023 – is on a stronger financial footing. Nonetheless costs must be cut to hasten breakeven, with 500 jobs going across the group. 

“We’ve cleared all the debt,” the new CEO confirms. “We’ve recapitalised the business and we’ve got an incredible board of directors.”

Legendary ex-Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo has joined as an advisor, supplementing former Rolls-Royce cars boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös and McLaren’s hugely experienced executive chairman Paul Walsh. 

Big SUV decisions to be made

Along with Collins, this experienced team will need to decide the new McLaren portfolio. Forseven was reported to be working on a second, more sporty SUV to rival the Range Rover Sport. The leaders must decide on the final form of the SUVs, their powertrains, how much of McLaren’s trademark carbon fibre is used in their construction, and the price point. Will it compete with the £150,000 Range Rover Electric or protect McLaren’s position as an F1-honed rival for Ferrari?

Another key question is where – and how – they’ll be assembled. With its purchase of Gordon Murray Technologies, CYVN acquired the rights to the respected ex-McLaren engineer’s iStream manufacturing system, the two electric vehicles the division was developing, and initially advice from Gordon Murray himself. The iStream process is designed to engineer out complexity and therefore weight, be used across a variety of vehicle types and deliver cost-effective manufacturing, so big car companies can launch low-volume, specialist products. 

The system could be appropriate for four-digit annual production but not if the new McLaren is shooting for a quarter of Range Rover volumes, about 20,000 SUVs a year. With China ruled out on tariff grounds, it’s possible CYVN may want its factory in the Middle East. That would help the region’s diversification from oil but the challenges would be huge, given the know-how and supplier base would require building from scratch. More likely is to use an existing manufacturer on contract.

McLaren Artura relaunch? 

Other key portfolio decisions are pending. The huge 2023 loss stemmed from a long delay to the V6 hybrid McLaren Artura supercar’s launch. While media have lauded the driving experience – the Artura is Auto Express’s reigning Performance Car of the Year – a rogue part caused some early vehicle fires and software issues scuppered its roll-out.

The executives are surely mulling a complete reskin, a long-established Ferrari tradition: most recently it has transformed the V8 Roma coupe into the Amalfi. A relaunch would give Alister Whelan the chance to express his new design language on a supercar, and a new badge and naming strategy would begin the process of better differentiating the line-up.

McLaren is also considering a more emotive marketing strategy, mirroring the Drive To Survive approach of humanising people such as founder Bruce McLaren, and surfing McLaren’s on-track renaissance. “The brand is amazing,” says Collins. “You see what's happening in racing. I was lucky enough to be at Silverstone [for the British Grand Prix]. The love for [the] papaya orange [racing livery] is phenomenal.”

The new CEO concludes: “This isn't about surviving the next five years or to the next equity injection. This is about building a sustainably profitable company that continually reinvests in itself. A company that’s on the world stage, which the country should be proud of.” 

It’s a big vision that demands a big plan. Expect to hear more officially before the end of the year.

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